In which Deen stays riding for his alias’ namesake.
I suppose it’s still too much to hope for Hell on Earth-era Prodigy on wax again someday, but I’ll take this. Rap internet has discussed and recapped this ad naseum, but post-“Takeover” Prodigy basically fell off until The Alchemist helped resurrect an acceptable version of the man on Return of the Mac. That was back in 2006. Since then, Bandana P has been hit or miss depending on how much Red Bull is in the studio when he’s writing his shit. Or more accurately, how many Alchemist beats he puts on the project. More ALC = better Presidential P. Simple formula, but rappers always wanna do too much and prove all kinds of shit.
On his last project, I kinda got excited about what we were about to hear based on one of the singles he dropped, then HNIC3 came out and I was so disappointed that I didn’t even bother to write about it at all. That hurt. Mostly because I still insist that Hell on Earth-era Prodigy was a Top 5 MC. I won’t debate this. Fuck you if you feel or think otherwise. Mobb Deep is probably still my favorite rap group (peep the psuedonym) – despite all the recent fuckery. P basically reinvented himself as some sort of ladies man and made songs to match. That’s as much as I’ll say. Remembering that shit just hurts. Actually, give me a second while I go delete HNIC3 from the external hard drive I saved it on…
OK. I’m back. Given that ALC is behind the boards for ALL of Albert Einstein, I think it’s almost guaranteed to be a dope project. Alchemist seems to be the only cat that can inspire decent rhymes outta Prodigy these days and I’m fairly sure that they’ll both skip on the European Prog-Rock samples on this project. So I guess I’m trying to say that it’ll be good. “Give Em Hell” is the first more soulful than psychedelic salvo, and P sounds pretty damn good – hubris everywhere and a gully hook to tie it all together. This is the perfect opportunity for me to explain exactly what Prodigy and Chief Keef have in common, but I’d rather just be wise/an ass and let that sleeping dog lie. Only so many hours in a day.
If enough of you care, I’ll expand on my “Chief P” theory later. Maybe when the full project drops. If not then, maybe when The Alchemist does a full length project with Sosa. You know it’s gonna happen…
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